Obama: America's Adult

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama says the government has been "asleep at the switch" when it comes to overseeing the nation's financial system.He says Americans are "feeling frustrated that there's not a lot of adult supervision."

Asleep at the switch? If only. We're in this mess precisely because of government meddling in the markets. If there was any regulatory failure, it was due to government forcing the markets to accept investments it would otherwise run from. Obama knows this and is just demagoguing the issue with lies to benefit his statist agenda. When he condescendingly calls for "adult supervision", what he's really saying is that he and his army of hall monitors to need bring order to the chaos of freedom. Everything else is secondary.

Obama called for a "shift in ethics" on Wall Street.
He says everyone involved — from CEOs to shareholders to investors — needs to consider not only whether what they're doing will make them money, but also whether it's right, and whether it conforms to "higher standards."

Whose standards might that be and why are they more important than the well being of those whose money is at risk? Obviously Obama means his leftist standards and if you lose your shirt, then tough shit. We're building a utopia don'tcha know.

Code Pink Gets Taken to School

The Code Pink moonbats were given a lesson (video above) on civility and the responsibilties that come wth rights to free speech by the Iraqi ambassador after they disrupted his press conference. As they called for the release of the assailant of a sitting U.S. President, he chose to show far more courage than most American politicians by confronting them directly.

Beyond the obvious ironies, it's nice to see these Anti-American, narcissistic brats publicly exposed for the fools they are.

More at Hot Air

Americans Becoming Unhinged over Economy?

Here's an interesting piece of "news" from the lamestream media:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A paralegal, recently laid off, wanted to get back at the "establishment" that he felt was to blame for his lost job. So when he craved an expensive new tie, he went out and stole one.The story, relayed by psychiatrist Timothy Fong at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital, is an example of the rash behaviors exhibited by more Americans as a recession undermines a lifestyle built on spending.In the coming months, mental health experts expect a rise in theft, depression, drug use, anxiety and even violence as consumers confront a harsh new reality and must live within diminished means."

Oh brother. Is there any empirical evidence for this alarmist assertion? No. Just one anecdote and the opinion of a couple of shrinks Reuters found willing to bolster an irresponsible conclusion in search of a story.

Of course, the underlying theme is that Americans are a bunch of children who can't be trusted to deal with life's setbacks on their own and must directed by the smart people in government.

New York Re-Arranges The Deck Chairs

The state with the possibly the highest tax and regulatory burden in the country is going to make itself even more uncompetitive with a typically statist tax and spending plan:

"Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110."

This is how New York and other socialist states have always solved the fiscal disasters they create. More of the same policies that caused the problems in the first place.

As before, none of these taxes and fees will bring in anywhere near the revenue projected as New Yorkers will be turned into criminals when they avoid (evade?) these taxes by taking their commerce elsewhere. One just has to look at New York's thriving black market in cigarettes resulting from the highest taxes in the country on that legal product.

Ultimately, the New York government will chase even more of its most productive citizens from the state as it kicks the can down the road without reforming a government run by those who sit in the cart rather than pull it.

The New York Post knows all too well that this is more of the same:

"So he proposed a $121 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1, ostensibly to close an estimated $15.4 billion revenue-spending gap through March 2010. Not good enough. Yes, the budget calls for relatively modest cuts in big-ticket items. But it "restructures" virtually nothing. It actually increases spending, by some $1.3 billion. And it seeks to impose tax and fee hikes in excess of $4 billion - larger than any New York governor has ever sought before. Can you say "business as usual"?"

For example, we're told without context that there will be a 3.3%, or $698 million, reduction in school aid. But as The Post points out: " ...the governor's proposed 3.3 percent dip in school aid will still leave districts with $6.2 billion - up fully 42 percent since '04."

Furthermore: "Now, as always, the Legislature is certain to bloat Paterson's modest economies beyond recognition.
He knows that - everybody knows it."

In other words, nothing has changed and when New York falls further in the hole, they along with California, Michigan and other irresponsible states will be asking the rest of the country to be bail them out.

The problem is that the Obamunists are proposing exactly the same type of government policies that have doomed New York. Now we'll have people and capital fleeing across the oceans rather than just down I95.

Assigning Blame in All The Wrong Places

The journalists at USA today have reached their verdict on the financial meltdown and predictably place most of the blame on the private sector while ignoring the chronology of events.

None of this would have happened had the government not abused its monopoly on force when it began intimidating and threatening lenders into throwing all prudent lending standards out the window. That was the first the domino to fall. Everything after that was an effect of government meddling.

Killer Chic

If Washington is the Hollywood for the ugly, then Hollywood must be the Washington for the stupid. Here's a video that highlights that stupidity with an examination of the Celubutard Community's love affair with mass murderer, Che Guevara:

"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate." - Che Guevara

Quick Hits: December 11, 2008

** Confused by the massive bank bailout? Here's some answers from Hank Paulson to all the questions you were afraid to ask. Be more afraid of the answers.

** America's favorite domestic terrorist and reprobate William Ayers, is still trying to repair his image with incoherent rationales. Stop selling it Billy, cuz no one's buying.

** Bailout and buy from American car companies? There's no such thing anymore other than that they're headquartered in Detroit . What about all the foreign cars that are built here by Americans?

** Here's some cute video of peaceful and tolerant Muslim children being trained as suicide bombers.

** Obama is offering Israel a nuclear umbrella that will respond to any nuclear attack by Iran. Does this means that Obama has already thrown in the towel in preventing these psychos from getting nukes in the first place?I'm sure The Israelis will appreciate the support after they're dead.

** Chris Dodd wants new management at the car companies, saying: “If you are going to restructure a company you can’t be asking the people frankly, many who were involved in creating the problems we’re in, to be involved in restructuring.” Indeed. So why don't you resign, Dumbass! Or are you going destroy the auto industry just like you did with the mortgage, banking and real estate industries?

** The Pro-Palestian (The UN, US & European Left etc.) will tell you they're anti Zionist, not Jew Haters. What does that mean? Not much apparently.

The Media's Top 10 Worst Economic Myths of 2008

The media has a leftist agenda to be sure. But what makes them truly dangerous is their constant socialist, anti-free enterprise propaganda based on lies and convenient myths. The Business Media Institute has compiled the 10 worst of 2008:

10. Capitalism is dead or dying.
9. Gas at $4-a-gallon, blame the oil companies.
8. Fannie’s failure
7. Barack Obama sends stocks soaring, but not sinking.
6. Alternative energy: All gain, no pain
5. The economy has a fever and the only prescription is more bailouts.
4. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
3. Oil prices will skyrocket to $200 a barrel, gas to $15.
2. Welcome to 1929: Great Depression II
1. America needs a new, New Deal.

Number 1 is the most important now as Obama and his congressional sidekicks get ready to repeat the failed dictatorial and socialist policies of FDR. They are banking that Americans will believe the most enduring economic myth of all - that FDR knew what the hell he was doing. He didn't.

Here it is:

1. America needs a new, New Deal.
Media myth: Time magazine and other media outlets pushed the idea that Obama must be the next FDR, but they are misrepresenting the impact of the New Deal.

Imagine the classic image of FDR sitting in his car grinning, with a cigarette perched from his mouth. Now imagine it had the face and hands of president-elect Barack Obama instead of FDR.

No, it wasn’t a dream – it was the cover of Time magazine on Nov. 24 which made it clear the media had crowned Obama the new FDR and wanted him to institute a new New Deal.

The photo illustration of Obama and FDR came with a headline that declared: “The New New Deal: What Barack Obama can learn from F.D.R. – and what the Democrats need to do.”

But even before Obama was elected, journalists were looking for FDR. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked before the election, “who’s gonna be FDR as opposed to Herbert Hoover?”

In a discussion of economic stimulus packages, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos said on Oct. 19 that he thought Obama “would want to do something like what FDR did in 1932.”

Guests and experts also sounded the call. On CNN, Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University called for a revamped New Deal more than once. Sachs was a favorite expert of CNN in October appearing on 10 of the first 23 days of the month.

But what news reporters, anchors and guest didn’t tell viewers is that according to several economists FDR’s New Deal actually prolonged and deepened the Great Depression.

In a 2004 study, two University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) economists found that FDR’s policies lengthened the suffering of the Depression by seven years. The two economists specifically blamed anti-free market measures including the National Industrial Recover Act (NIRA) and later the National Relations Act.

Another free-market economist who has written about FDR’s negative impact on the economy is Robert Higgs. Higgs told the Business & Media Institute that a new, New Deal would be disastrous. “I cannot imagine a worse course of action, short of outright socialization of the entire economy. The measures comprised in a new New Deal will not hasten general economic recovery, but will only bulk up the power of government and transfer income to privileged interest groups at the expense of taxpayers and consumers,” Higgs said.”

The Democrat Culture Of Corruption

From Michelle Malkin:

"Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi can stop clucking now. For the last three years, Democratic leaders cheered GOP ethics woes. Dean accused Republicans of making “their culture of corruption the norm.” Pelosi touted cleanliness as a liberal virtue. But with the eye-popping pay-for-play and bribery case against Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich topping a year of nationwide Democratic scandals, the corruption chickens are coming home to roost..

Democrats and the media can no longer rest on the old rationalization that Blago is an exception to the “we’re cleaner than thou” rule. 2008 was the year of Democratic Reps. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, Charlie “Sweetheart Deals” Rangel, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame “Text Me” Kilpatrick. It was the year Democratic Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson got caught stuffing bribes from an FBI informant down her shirt. It was the year 12 Democratic leaders and staffers in Pennsylvania’s state Capitol were stung in a massive corruption scandal involving cash, sex and abuse of public office. And it was the year of multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandals at Democratic satellite offices of ACORN and the SEIU.

The Democrats have met the culture of corruption, and it looks like it ain’t just elephants among the jackasses soiling public office."

Boston considers ban of tobacco bars

The anti-smoking fascists are looking forward to a major victory against personal freedom and property rights in Boston with a proposed ban on cigar and hookah bars, as well as tobacco sales in pharmacies:

Roger Swartz, director of the community initiatives bureau at the Boston Public Health Commission, said the dangers of tobacco are so great, significant steps are needed to protect public health."Regulations based on data are not done just to kind of hassle people," he said. "For a product like tobacco ... even if someone was doing it voluntarily, there is no safe exposure level."

There's no safe exposure level of anything, you idiot. What's next? A ban on sunbathing, driving, skiing and alcohol? And this is his business, why?Notice how Herr Swartz dismisses the voluntary choices of individuals in the name of "public health". That's the same argument tyrants have always used to rationalize their oppression. There is no private behavior since everything you do effects the collective whole.

This proposal is also being applauded by the bizarrely named Americans for Non-Smokers Rights who apparently believe their rights extend to infringing on everyone Else's.

These are pathetic losers who try to validate their own useless lives by trying to control the lives of others. It's much easier to focus on that which you don't like in others behavior than to examine your own.

Most important is that the anti-smoking and lifestyle police are enemies of our inalienable Individual rights of Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness. They are Un-American and need to be ridiculed and hounded out of the public arena.

If my behavior doesn't forcibly infringe on the rights of others, then no one has the moral right to question or control it.

"It is only when you are able to do things that other people don't approve that you are free." - Thomas Sowell

The Income Inequality Myth

IBD takes on Barack Obama's regurgitations of Socialist Dogma that animate his economic ignorance:

"Speaking to NBC's Tom Brokaw on Sunday, Obama laid out his views: "It turns out," he said, "that our economy grows best when the benefits of the economy are most widely spread. And that has been true historically."

He followed up by saying, in the last 15 years or so, "You've seen a huge shift in terms of resources to the wealthiest and the vast majority of Americans taking home less and less. Their incomes, their wages have flatlined at a time that costs of everything have gone up, and we've actually become a more productive society."

Our new president might want to talk to some of his sterling economic advisers about this, because he got virtually all of it wrong.

Start with the notion that our economy grows "best" when its benefits are most widely spread.

In fact, America's fast-growing economy has always bred differences in income. Some people are smarter, more talented, better educated and trained, or more entrepreneurial. In a free-market society — or relatively free, anyway — they'll do better. But they make the rest of us richer, too. We may envy them, but we're better off...MORE

Governor Arrested Over Obama'a Senate Seat

Corruption in Illinois? Say it ain't so!

"The U.S. District Court complaint, which is excerpted below, alleges that Blagojevich was caught on FBI wiretaps noting that the Senate seat "is a fucking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." He was also recorded saying that unless "I get something real good," he would appoint himself to the vacancy. "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying. And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself."

"White" Disease Loses Support

From CTV.ca

Carleton University won't be holding a popular fundraiser to benefit cystic fibrosis, it was confirmed Tuesday, after the student council passed a motion falsely claiming the disease affects only white men.

In what journalism councillor Nick Bergamini calls an "incredibly divisive" move,the Council of Carleton University Students Association (CUSA) passed a motion at a meeting late Monday night that effectively cancelled the annual Shinerama fundraising campaign.

Shinerama events occur during the school's orientation week and proceeds go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF).

...the motion read that orientation week strives to be inclusive and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts are serving a diverse community. However, the motion went on to say that "and whereas cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people and primarily men, be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign."

No word yet as to whether these idiots have also ruled out support of Sickle Cell Anemia or Tay-Sachs Disease charities.

Finally? Global Warming War is Over

A Global Warming alarmist is say the battle is lost and we should prepare for the worst:

"Despite the political rhetoric, the scientific warnings, the media headlines and the corporate promises, he would say, carbon
emissions were soaring way out of control - far above even the bleak scenarios considered by last year's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern review. The battle against dangerous climate change had been lost, and the world needed to prepare for things to get very, very bad."

Thank God. Since it's now hopeless, maybe we can get back to real science and stop damaging the world's economy trying to combat a non-existent problem.

I've got real money that says none of these dire predictions will come true. Most of the Eco-Marxists wont take me up on it because they know I'm right.

Homeowners re-defaulting after getting aid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent data suggests that many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday.

"The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and not in a good way," said John Dugan, head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in prepared remarks for a U.S. housing forum.

What's surprising is that this government hack is surprised. These are people who never should have had mortgages in the first place but did because the government put a gun to lenders heads. Re-financing these loans just encourages more of the same irresponsible behavior.

These new loans have a default rate of 36%, which is around nine times the average for all mortgages. So the government has just further injured the economy by strong arming banks to again throw good money after bad.

This is the moral hazard that always dooms government-run economies to failure.

Killing Off Capitalism

WASHINGTON -- Congress and the White House inched toward a financial rescue of the Big Three auto makers, negotiating legislation that would give the U.S. government a substantial ownership stake in the industry and a central role in its restructuring.

Nowhere in the constitution does the government have the right to own the means of production, which is the very definition of Socialism. The management and shareholders are willing to sell their capitalist souls in order to avoid the uncertainty of the bankruptcy courts.

In return their companies will be run by politicians, whose interests do not include sound business practices and the taxpayers will yet again pay the price for their incompetence. Even the French finally saw the folly of a sclerotic government attempting to compete in a worldwide competitive market when it privatized Renault.

Socialism is not only immoral, it never works. But their are always power hungry statists who believe they are the gifted enough to do the impossible.

Most of the cars I've owned have been American. If this Anti-American plan goes through, I wont buy another one again.

This is only the beginning. When Democrats take full control of the Government, we will go headlong down the road to economic destruction and the loss of liberty.

Chris Dodd's Brass Balls

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Richard Wagoner should be replaced as a condition for federal aid and Chrysler LLC may have to merge to survive. “You’ve got to consider new leadership,” Dodd said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Wagoner, he said, “has to move on.”

This from the guy who along with Barney Frank, oversaw and did nothing about the financial meltdown his party caused by forcing lenders to make loans to people who couldn't pay them back. Not to mention Dodd's own sweetheart loan from Countrywide that was an obvious payoff.

Dodd is not only still a Senator, he's still in charge of the same committee and is lecturing us on how the auto industry should be run. The only place he should be is federal prison.

UAW Guilt Trip Ad

Complete with veiled threats and class warfare, the UAW is begging us to use our tax money to save their uncompetitive and unsustainable contracts. They must think they should be excused from the bankruptcy courts by virtue of their sheer numbers, as if everyone Else's job is less important than theirs.

Another part of the UAW's argument is that since we wasted money on a bailout for Wall Street and Fannie and Freddie, then they deserve it as much, if not more.

Let's be clear. Bankruptcy would mean a temporary loss of jobs since the demand for autos wouldn't stop and other companies would quickly pick up the slack and the pieces of the Big Three in a more efficient manner that would benefit everyone.

The only thing these parasite are offering is to take your money and throw it at an obsolete business model that has no chance for survival in a competitive free market.

H/T to Hot Air

Obama: Don't stock up on guns

From The Chicago Sun Times:

"I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment," Obama said at a news conference. "Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word."

Since your campaign was nothing but a series of lies, please excuse me for believing your actions speak louder than your meaningless words:

But National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said it's not Obama's words — but his legislative track record — that has gun-buyers flocking to the stores.

"Prior to his campaign for president, his record as a state legislator and as a U.S. Senator shows he voted for the most stringent forms of gun control, the most Draconian legislation, gun bans, ammunition bans and even an increase in federal excise taxes up to 500 percent for every gun and firearm sold," Arulanandam said.

2008 Coolest on Record

From Guardian UK:

"This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office...The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. "Absolutely not," said Dr Peter Stott, the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office's Hadley Centre. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends."

Really? Then why is it that the Church of Climate Change predicts the apocolypse from GW after every heat wave, hurricane or case of athletes foot? High Priest AlGore never misses a chance to blame all unusual weather events as prima facie evidence of man's destruction of the planet.

This is a naked power grab disguised as science. Anyone who can't or wont see that is either a liar or a fool.

EPA Proposes Passage of Gas Tax

When the Supreme Court declared Natural gasses like Carbon Dioxide and Methane to be pollutants, that gave unelected bureaucrats at the EPA license to charge "fees" or fine those who produce them. That means everyone.

Their latest proposal is to charge ranchers and farmers for every head of cattle or pork. Of course, PETA likes this plan to change your behavior through your wallet:

"It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog...

..."It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.

Given the current population of these animals, (pigs, beef, dairy) this amounts to a tax of over $25 billion that bypasses congress' constitutional taxing authority, relieving them of the political fallout of this ridiculous proposal based on a hoax.

Remember folks, every tax, fee or regulation is eventually paid by individuals, one way or another.

No word yet on how the government proposes to tax all the horses, deer, dogs, people and every other living thing that produces these dangerous pollutants every day.

Defining Terms

The best teaching explains complex ideas in the simplest way possible. The video above does just that in showing us why the U.S. is not a "Democracy" in the true sense and why political arguments are not about Left or Right but less government or more. Well worth ten minutes or so of your time.

Power Mad Fools

First we had the Government induced Dodd/Frank Mortgage and Banking Meltdown. Now these same incompetent, corrupt boobs are heading up efforts to bring congress' scary business talents to bear on the Auto Industry. Investors Business Daily puts this insanity into perspective:

"...That leaves the latest bright idea from Congress: a broad, federally mandated restructuring of the Big Three in exchange for financial help. Congress would in essence become the Big Three's uber-manager, telling them how to become profitable again.

Excuse us, but are we supposed to believe that the same Congress responsible for next year's estimated $1 trillion deficit can profitably run a market-sensitive company like a car manufacturer?

Or that the same Congress that sat on its hands as the financial meltdown unfolded and helped create the mess will know how to financially restructure America's highly complex auto business?

Or that the people who just last year imposed $85 billion in new "efficiency" standards on a teetering industry will be savvy enough to run them anywhere but further into the ground?

Does Congress have the know-how to do this? We looked up the background of the majority Democrat members on the Senate Banking Committee who grilled Big Three CEOs last Thursday, and who will decide the outlines of any bailout plan. Out of 11 members, just one — Montana's Jon Tester, a farmer and former manager of a butcher shop — had any real business experience.

None of the rest, from committee chairman Chris Dodd on down, has any private-sector experience to speak of, apart from brief stints at law firms. Fact is, Congress isn't equipped to run anything... "

Let's End Drug Prohibiton Too

It didn't work then. It doesn't work now.

From WSJ

By ETHAN A. NADELMANN
Today is the 75th anniversary of that blessed day in 1933 when Utah became the 36th and deciding state to ratify the 21st amendment, thereby repealing the 18th amendment. This ended the nation's disastrous experiment with alcohol prohibition...

...Consider the consequences of drug prohibition today: 500,000 people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions of taxpayer dollars expended annually to fund a drug war that 76% of Americans say has failed; millions now marked for life as former drug felons; many thousands dying each year from drug overdoses that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves, and tens of thousands more needlessly infected with AIDS and Hepatitis C because those same policies undermine and block responsible public-health policies.

And look abroad. At Afghanistan, where a third or more of the national economy is both beneficiary and victim of the failed global drug prohibition regime. At Mexico, which makes Chicago under Al Capone look like a day in the park. And elsewhere in Latin America, where prohibition-related crime, violence and corruption undermine civil authority and public safety, and mindless drug eradication campaigns wreak environmental havoc.

All this, and much more, are the consequences not of drugs per se but of prohibitionist policies that have failed for too long and that can never succeed in an open society, given the lessons of history. Perhaps a totalitarian American could do better, but at what cost to our most fundamental values?

Why did our forebears wise up so quickly while Americans today still struggle with sorting out the consequences of drug misuse from those of drug prohibition?

It's not because alcohol is any less dangerous than the drugs that are banned today. Marijuana, by comparison, is relatively harmless: little association with violent behavior, no chance of dying from an overdose, and not nearly as dangerous as alcohol if one misuses it or becomes addicted. Most of heroin's dangers are more a consequence of its prohibition than the drug's distinctive properties. That's why 70% of Swiss voters approved a referendum this past weekend endorsing the government's provision of pharmaceutical heroin to addicts who could not quit their addictions by other means. It is also why a growing number of other countries, including Canada, are doing likewise.

Yes, the speedy drugs -- cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit stimulants -- present more of a problem. But not to the extent that their prohibition is justifiable while alcohol's is not. The real difference is that alcohol is the devil we know, while these others are the devils we don't. Most Americans in 1933 could recall a time before prohibition, which tempered their fears. But few Americans now can recall the decades when the illicit drugs of today were sold and consumed legally. If they could, a post-prohibition future might prove less alarming...

Dear Baltimore Sun: Politicians Aren't Business Experts

Why the hell are we allowing the incompetence of the Big Three to be "fixed" by people who are not only more incompetent, but completely unqualified? Oh, and they're doing it with our money. Insanity? You bet it is.

From BMI


Dear Editor:

You opine that Detroit automakers "need to explain in detail to Congress how they intend to eliminate thousands of uneconomical dealerships, swiftly bring their labor costs closer to what Toyota pays its workers in this country, and quickly produce more energy-efficient cars that Americans will want to buy" ("Selling American cars," Dec. 4).

No. These companies deserve investment funds only if they're able to make cars that will sell AND can demonstrate this ability to private investors. Congress is manned by people who specialize in winning popularity contests called "elections." These are not people expert in judging business models, or at pondering the pros and cons of different retail-distribution methods, or equipped to accurately discern the nuances of consumer demands for automobiles, or even – judging from their track record – aware of the most elementary principles of finance and economics.

If, say, you're looking for someone to manage your 401(k), would you entrust that job to Sen. Mikulski or Rep. Hoyer? Of course not, for that's not what they do. So why entrust them and other politicians with the job of investing on a vastly larger scale?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.

Finally! Anti-Semitic Sunflower Seeds!

But Islamophobia is the real problem, don'tcha know.

Brooklyn, NY - Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson today denounced the Shnayder family, owners of the value import store, Net Cost Market, for stocking and selling dozens of packages of roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew, complete with skullcap, on the label. The Cyrillic letters on the left of the label read, “Shalom, from Israel,” while the right side employs a slang phrase meaning “spit them out everywhere,” alluding to “dirty Jews.”

Free Plaxico Burress

The Giants player may lose his freedom (3 1/2 yrs) and carreer for committing a "crime" in NYC that would be a wristslap in most other jurisdictions that respect the Bill of Rights. From the WSJ:

...In 40 states, including Connecticut, law-abiding adults are issued permits once they pass a fingerprint-based background check and a safety class. In New Jersey, carry permits are virtually never issued. In New York City, carry permits are issued, but to applicants with some form of political clout rather than on the basis of his or her need for protection.

The Second Amendment might not require New Jersey or New York City to issue as liberally as Connecticut does. But with a population of several million and only a few thousand (consisting mainly of politicians, retired police and celebrities) able to get permits, New York City's licensing process is almost certainly unconstitutional on a number of grounds,including sheer arbitrariness...

Having said that, Burress is an idiot. If you're going to spend $500.00 or so for a gun, then spring for a $50.00 holster. And don't ever carry a gun stuffed into your sweatpants!

Outrageous Islam

From Boortz:

I thought I would repeat something we did earlier this year ... go into Google and see how many hits we get for "___________ Outraged" stories. We'll start with the most outraged group out there ... peace loving Muslims:

"Muslims Outraged" 12,200 hits.

"Christians Outraged" 1,270 hits

"Jews Outraged" 7,490 hits

"Buddhists Outraged" 292 hits.

"Hindus Outraged" 291 hits.

"Atheists Outraged" 866 hits

"Wiccans Outraged" 8 hits

"Democrats Outraged" 2,950 hits

"Republicans Outraged" 2,010 hits

"Libertarians Outraged" 302 hits

"Postal Workers Outraged" 3 hits

"Yoga Instructors Outraged" 0 hits

Gov't Run Auto Bailout Likely

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government would order a major restructuring of Detroit's struggling Big Three auto companies in exchange for a multibillion-dollar bailout under a plan circulating in Congress

Great. Political hacks will now do for the Auto Industry what they did to housing and mortgages. And the same corrupt perpetrators, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, will be in charge again. These two should be in federal prison but Democrats think they're doing a fine job.

The bankruptcy courts are where every other failing company gets restructured, but Democrats can't resist the prospect of taking over a major industry with Soviet style central planning. Besides, the Democrats union buddies would see their fat, uncompetitive contracts disappear in a responsible bankruptcy plan, so taxpayers will now be on the hook for something private investors and lenders wont touch with a ten foot pole.

This will also be an opportunity for the Big Government socialists to micromanage industry and force the big three to produce enviro-friendly crap boxes that no one wants. It looks like the Eco-Marxist's Global Warming hoax may finally pay off. Remember the Yugo?

OIC: Reality is Bigotry

The Organisation of The Islamic Conference is once again turning logic on its head with an admonition that we shouldn't identify the Mumbai terrorists for what they are: Muslims.

In a press release laughably entitled "Islam, the religion of peace, tolerance and compassion" the OIC decries as "malicious" any attempt to acknowledge the linkage the terrorists themselves make with Islam:

"It is frustrating to see some circles, still, maliciously trying to establish conceptual link between such evil and wicked practices and Islam, the religion that condemns, scorns and outlaws them.

It is on the premise of this irrefutable fact that we, in the OIC, call upon all well-intentioned peoples of the world, not to give to these criminals any right to present Islam, a right that Islam itself denies them. Those who refer to the perpetrators, as acting on behalf of Islam, help them by offering them justification, anchor and premise that they don't have or deserve. On the other hand, the generalization of the guilt of a few aberrant misguided individuals, to engulf the adherents of a religion of 1.5 billion followers is an outrageous judgment and amounts to an illegal collective punishment on a global scale. Moreover, any attempt to implicate all Muslims in such a wicked and wanton acts goes contrary to the well established principles of international law."

The only people that are collectively punishing Muslims are Muslim terrorists. There have been over 12,000 Muslim terrorist attacks worldwide since 9/11 and these guys have the balls to tell us not to name the perpetrators what they name themselves?

That's like Germans getting angry for linking Nazis to Germany. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists today are Muslims. But I shouldn't state that simple fact? GFY.

The membership of the OIC is populated by some of the most repressive, intolerant and brutal governments in the world, including but not limited to: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Mali, Mauritania and Chad.

These regimes either outlaw religions other than Islam, condone slavery, support genocide, support Islamic terrorists themselves or all of the above plus a whole lot more crimes against humanity. And every one of these tyrants actively foment rabid hatred of Jews. Peace, tolerance and compassion my foot.

So these Islamo-Fascists can spare me the lectures on tolerance and go clean up the cesspool in their own backyards before criticising everyone Else's. This infidel wont be cowed by transparent attempts at intimidating me into silence.

Bailout Monitor: We don't know what we're doing

From The Herald Tribune:

The head of a new congressional panel set up to monitor the gigantic U.S. government bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort.

Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the oversight
panel, said in an interview Monday that the government instead seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan.

"You can't just say, 'Credit isn't moving through the system,' " she said in her first public comments since being named to the panel. "You have to ask why."

Why indeed. Why does anyone with an ounce of sanity and common sense think that just throwing borrowed and stolen money wiily nilly at the largest and most complex economy in the world is going to have any predictable or desired effect?

And it's not as if we don't have dozens of examples of when this was tried and failed in the past and none where it succeeded.

YOU take care of MY kids

Here we have a 29 year old single mother that's begging the rest of us to pay for her irresponsibility.

FLINT, Michigan -- With 10 kids and no vehicle, Latrica Ryan is used to juggling.Going to a movie or out for dinner is a like plotting a major tactical undertaking.

Not that such outings happen that much.

"It would really be nice if I could take my kids where they needed to go, instead of having to find them a ride," Ryan said. "And when we do go somewhere, I have to pay four or five people (for gas) to get us all there.

"I have booster seats and car seats. It's a lot."Ryan, is a 29-year-old single stay-at-home mother of five sons and five daughters, who range in age from 2 months to 13 years.

Where are the fathers? No one knows or seems to care. Obviously I (we) are already paying for food stamps, subsidized housing, school breakfasts, lunch and just about everything else for this brood. Including her asinine MySpace page. But it's not enough.

If I had ten dogs in my my house that I couldn't take care of, you can bet your ass they would be taken away in about five minutes. Her story is prima facie evidence that she's an unfit mother and those kids should be taken from her.

This woman can have as many kids as she wants as long as she doesn't expect me to pay for them. What about my kids and their future? Can't I keep my money for them and not have to give it to useless slugs like Latrica Ryan?

At this point, it's clear she's an immature parasite that's raising ten more like her to be drags on society as well.

Obama Creates New Job: For Himself

I guess that's how he intends to create all the other phony taxpayer funded government jobs - just make them up. The Office of the President -Elect? Let's count the adjectives we can use to describe Obama's latest act of hubris: arrogant, disrespectful, insulting, offensive, megalomaniacal, demeaning, un-American, stupid, childish,...there's just too many.

Holy Land Foundation Guilty

We've had a major legal victory against the enemy the left refuses to name or fight:

"A federal jury in Dallas on Monday dealt the Stealth Jihad initiative in the United States a crushing defeat: it found five former officials of an Islamic charity, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), guilty of funneling at least $12 million of the charity’s funds to the jihad terror group Hamas. The notorious “Muslim civil rights” group, the Council on American Islamic Relations, is involved as well, since Ghassan Elashi, a founding director of CAIR as well as founder of the group’s Texas chapter, was among those found guilty; Elashi and his co-defendants face prison sentences of up to twenty years for providing support to terrorists.

Another unsavory link between the HLF and the global jihad
came to light during the first trial of the charity, which ended in a mistrial last year. Found among the HLF’s documents was the Muslim Brotherhood memorandum about its “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” first came to light. It seems clear now that the HLF itself was one of the chief engines of this stealthy effort, enjoying a sterling reputation as a charitable organization while actually acting as a virtual fundraising engine for Hamas.

One chief operating procedure of this stealth jihad effort is constantly to portray oneself as being unjustly victimized by a racist and bigoted Justice Department. (Al-Qaeda manuals, similarly, advise imprisoned members to claim that they have been tortured whenever and wherever they may find themselves in an infidel prison.)

I can't wait until we close Gitmo and give these barbarians the constitutional benefits of US courts. Here' some video of the peaceful religion of Islam that is oddly responsible for almost all of the terrorism, violence and wars in this world.

Arrogant, Ignorant and Dangerous

The most frustrating thing about watching congress strut around telling us they're going to solve a financial crisis they created is the fact that they no nothing about the subject. They repeat politically expedient myths and lies about market economics and the equally ignorant public nods their heads at any simplistic explanation of a complex problem.

Look back at the oil bubble of this past summer. One of the favorite scapegoats was speculators in oil futures. It was said they were driving up prices for profit at the expense of the public although none of these demagogues criticised them when the price plummeted. It was never explained or understood that futures traders were just predicting future supply and demand and that all trades require a buyer and a seller.

John Lott warns us not to trust control of our economic lives and individual decisions to government force run by by people who wouldn't know a balance sheet from a bed sheet:

"Politicians pose as the ultimate experts. They may never have worked in an industry or studied an issue before, but after few months of time on a topic they know everything: the types of cars that should be produced, the science of global warming, and how much doctors should charge for different types of surgery...

Outside of studying law, few in Congress even have backgrounds that are closely related to some of the issues covered by government. Just take the Senate this year, almost half, 45, are attorneys. Only one doctor, four farmers, 13 business people, seven teachers, four professors (all law, and three are listed as just adjuncts), and virtually all the others list their past experience as professional politician. No members of the Senate are scientists or economists. One member of the Senate played professional sports, and another owned a professional sports team...

...Harry Reid says Congress will give the automobile companies another $25 billion when they provide a “viable plan.” But how is Congress going to evaluate what a “viable plan” is better than the shareholders and bankers whose money is at stake? The auto companies presumably have to turn to Congress for money because others don’t think that they are good investments.

Would you want to invest in a company that congressmen tell you is a viable investment, or in companies where shareholders and banks are willing to put their own money?"

Dems Will Make It Worse

There are two types of economists. Those that don't know and those that don't know they don't know. Peter Schiff however, now looks like a genius after he correctly predicted with great certitude, the current economic mess we find ourselves in. What's more amazing is that he not only called what would happen but was dead on as to the why. As a side note, he must be having a lot of fun watching the other so-called experts rudely dismissing him while making now laughable predictions of their own.

Now Schiff is predicting further disaster as Obama promises to crank up the presses in a futile attempt to prop up an economy that needs to fall. (Video Below) Democrats are offering more government solutions from the same government that tripped everything up in the first place.

We will have more government spending on inefficient make work projects that take money from the private sector or borrow more on the country's already maxed out credit. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will pass protectionist policies and block free trade deals that will result in retaliatory tariffs overseas. This will be on top of even more uncompetitive new regulations, labor laws and tax increases.

Buckle up and pucker your sphincters folks. It's going to be a wild ride.

Much thanks to Hot Air

There's No Free Lunch, Stupid

The economic ignorance of the general public is one of the most dangerous threats to freedom today. A majority of Americans actually believe the fairy tales of the Left and unwittingly voted for their own economic destruction.

Jamie Whyte at the London Times gives an excellent explanation of the real costs of a heavy handed government:

..."To an economic child, taxing companies sounds like an obviously good idea. Who cares about companies? Can a company be hungry, homeless, uneducated? Will you put the interests of these wealthy inhuman entities ahead of real, flesh and blood people, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet?

But companies cannot be rich or poor; only the people who own them or work for them can be. Nor can the cost of taxation fall on a company; it must ultimately fall on the company's owners, employees or customers. Before you can tell whether corporate tax is a good idea, you need to understand who bears the cost and how it affects their behaviour. Once you do, it turns out that taxing companies is a bad idea.

Research shows that the cost of corporate tax falls more or less evenly across a company's shareholders (in lower dividends), employees (in lower wages) and customers (in higher prices). So, in terms of the “social justice” so beloved of the Left, corporate tax is no better than a combination of income and sales taxes.

But, in terms of efficiency, it is worse. Research also shows that corporate tax has a greater “deadweight cost” than both income and sales taxes, because it discourages the allocation of resources to productive uses - in other words, it discourages investment.

Markets are another, increasingly popular, fantastical bearer of costs. The current financial crisis, we are told, was caused by “unfettered markets”. Fetter them! Alas, you cannot fetter a market. Markets are nothing but places (sometimes “virtual” places) where people enter into voluntary transactions. You can fetter a market only by fettering those who participate in it. You must dictate the terms on which they may do business with each other or conditions they must meet to participate in the market.

Market fetterists claim their shackles protect the vulnerable. That sounds plausible only if you ignore the effects on individual market participants. Complying with regulations imposes a fixed cost on businesses. It thus disadvantages small firms, creates a barrier to market entry and stifles the competition that delivers the best deal for consumers. In short, it shafts the little guy. That is why large incumbent firms lobby politicians to increase market regulation...

... When it comes to bearing costs, there are no companies or markets or other aggregations of people. Costs are always borne by individuals. That is what Margaret Thatcher meant when she denied the existence of society: “They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people.”...

NYT: Palin Condones Turkey Executions

The New York Times editorial board has taken their childish hatred for Sarah Palin to the level of self-parody. They now have their collective panties in a twist over a video of Palin on a turkey farm that was... Killing Turkeys!!!

" And then there’s this. You don’t have to be a huge animal lover to question why Governor Palin chose to be interviewed — while issuing a traditional seasonal pardon of a turkey — while turkeys were being executed in the background."

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air had this to say:

"One man butchers a turkey for food (two, actually), and the New York Times gets the vapors. Have any of them ever eaten meat? At all? The editors of the Times should declare right now whether they plan to eat real turkey on Thanksgiving, and/or use turkey in sandwiches from now on. If so, how would they expect to have that available to them without the kind of process seen in this clip? Did they think that turkeys somehow committed suicide and left wills donating their bodies to family dining tables around the world?

Executed. Someone send the Times a vat of smelling salts."

One one wonders how this instructional video on how to carve up a turkey corpse made it past the fragile sensibilities of these infants and on to the Times dining page.

Obama: I Didn't Mean MY Kids!

From the "some are more equal than others" department, we've been told that it's bad form to criticize The One for sending his children to a private school while denying those less fortunate the opportunity to do so themselves:

(CNSNews.com) - President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle “have every right” to send their children to public or private school, and no one should “criticize” their decision, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said in an interview with CNSNews.com on Monday at the National Press Club.

Democratic Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack echoed Weingarten’s comments at the conference, telling CNSNews.com that “it’s a very personal decision” that the president-elect and his wife need to make and the issue “should not be subject to criticism or comment.” ...

...Weingarden said “none of us” can relate to being in the position of president of the United States. “Look, none of us knows what it’s like to be a president of the United States of America or a president-elect,” she said. “I think Senator Obama and his wife have every right to make a decision that works for their family and their kids, and none of us should criticize it.”

Vilsak and Weingarden can relate to and make personal decisions for the millions of ordinary parents they wont allow to escape from the corrupt and incompetent government school system. The education fascists would also prohibit parents from teaching their own children if they could as we saw in the recent attempt to ban homeschooling in California:

The California Teachers Association, the state teachers’ union, has been critical of parents’ rights in the case. “Parents do not have an unfettered right to dictate the terms of their children’s education,” stated a lawyer for the union. “Unregulated,unsupervised homeschooling, the lawyer said, is an invitation to ‘educational anarchy.’”

That's because the Obamas are part of the anointed ruling elite and their kids need and deserve the best education possible. The children of the unwashed masses on the other hand, merely need to be indoctrinated as loyal servants of The Church of Secular Government with just enough education to make them useful drones. Well educated, critically thinking people are just trouble making bourgeoisie.

So everyone should just know their place and stay there. Disruptive questioning of the ruling class will not be tolerated.

Michael Jackson Converts to Islam

It's comes as no surprise that he would join a religion that officially condones pedophilia, specifically the buggering of little boys:

...Perhpas not altogether insignificant in this grotesque phenomenon is that the Koran itself promises to put pre-pubescent boys at the service of jihadi martyrs not interested in the female virgins awaiting them in paradise. The boys will be like “scattered pearls” of “perpetual freshness” (Suras 52:24, 56:17, 76:19).

The Triumph of The Eco-Marxists

Barack Obama gave a speech to the Bi-Partisan Governors Climate Summit
that was full of the typical boilerplate lies of the Global Warming hoax along with the predictable solutions of an even more heavy handed government.

He will get his way and this nonsense will be piled on top of a fragile economy already crippled by government meddling and social engineering. And the only solutions on the table is more of the same. The enslavement of the populous by the fascist/socialist elite is almost complete. The irony is that most of the slaves voted for it:

"Few challenges facing America - and the world - are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

This is the most audacious use of the Big Lie in history. Non - Scientists Obama, AlGore and their Eco-Marxist allies either wilfully ignore contrary views or ridicule and blacklist detractors with propaganda from the lap dog media. Obama and his leftist congress along with useful idiot Republicans have vowed to address this mythical problem through higher taxes and energy costs, more regulation and less individual liberty.

Nevertheless, 31,000 American scientists alone have signed the following petition:

"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

We also have this extensive list of real experts that are skeptical at best of this "crisis". It also comes as no surprise that the True Believers refuse to subject their claims to even the most basic requirements of Scientific Theory.

In fact, not one person has stepped to claim the $500,000 prize in The Ultimate Global Warming Challenge:

$500,000 will be awarded to the first person to prove, in a scientific manner, that humans are causing harmful global warming. The winning entry will specifically reject both of the following two hypotheses:

UGWC Hypothesis 1
Manmade emissions of greenhouse gases do not discernibly, significantly and predictably cause increases in global surface and tropospheric temperatures along with associated stratospheric cooling.

UGWC Hypothesis 2
The benefits equal or exceed the costs of any increases in global temperature caused by manmade greenhouse gas emissions between the present time and the year 2100, when all global social, economic and environmental effects are considered."

Here's some video from The Great Global Warming Swindle.



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